Florence landlord helping tenants with rent during coronavirus crisis

Photo Gallery 1 Images

A landlord in the Shoals told WAAY31 his bank helped defer his mortgages so he could give tenants who lost their jobs some breathing room.

Matt Golley has about 20 tenants in rental properties across Florence. He said some of them lost their jobs because of the coronavirus.

"Rent was just not going to happen and so we knew they had a lot of worries but the worry they were not going to have is where to live and that their house was secure," said Golley. "With our service workers we just said hey don't worry about rent we've got a couple of months coming up here where you won't get paid."

That put Golley in a bad situation to pay his mortgages on his rental properties because some tenants can't pay rent.

"We went through the process with bank independent to find out how to differ the mortgages and get through the next three months with not losing our houses and putting people out on the street," said Golley.

Under Governor Kay Ivey's stay at home order landlords are not allowed to evict anyone right now even if they can't pay rent. Golley said that was never an option.

"We wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and secure in their house," said Golley.

Golley said because he can defer those mortgage payments that gives him time to come up with a plan. Any payments his tenants miss because they lost their jobs will be forgiven.

For other renters out there you need to ask your landlord if they will work with you on a payment plan, if you've lost your job due to the pandemic. WAAY31 has reached out to the governors office to see if landlords can evict people once the order is lifted on April 30th. We are waiting to hear back from them.